These french bread pizzas are one of my husband's favorite meals that his mom makes. The first time I tried them... I didn't like them. I like my pizza crust soft and chewy, so the crispy french bread wasn't my thing. I experimented with cutting the bread differently so it wasn't as crispy, and now I love them! Major bonuses for being easy and inexpensive.

French Bread Pizzas
makes 8-10 mini pizzas

1 loaf french bread
1 pound ground beef*, cooked and seasoned to taste (we brown ours with some onion and then freeze it, so all we have to do is thaw the meat for dinner)
1 small jar pizza sauce (or make your own using the recipe below)
1/2 cup each grated cheddar cheese and grated mozzarella cheese, combined

*or ground turkey, ground sausage, pepperoni, or whatever you like on your pizza

Preheat oven (or toaster oven if you're blessed to have one) to 350*F.

Slice the french bread, either into regular slices (like my bakery cuts mine, by request) or B) into fourths that are then sliced in half (so that the outside crust of the french bread becomes the crust of the pizza). --see images below for notes about cutting french bread if you don't understand what in the world I am talking about :)--

Spread a thin layer of pizza sauce on the french bread. Thinner sauce = crispier pizza

Add your toppings! We put a layer of cheese, then meat, then more cheese.

Bake at 350*F for 5-7 minutes, until cheese is melted. Let pizzas cool for a couple minutes before eating.

So... I'm back. From both my blog-cation (unannounced and mostly unplanned) and a real-life vacation. Don't you wish you could have come with me?

Cape Kiwanda

Trillium Lake (and Mt. Hood)

We had the most marvelous time! The weather in Oregon (at least where we were at) is so much more temperate than here in Utah. We left the 75 degree weather and green to drive back home to 100 degrees. At 8 PM. And a dead flower garden. (Oops.)

If you're wanting an awesome naturific vacation, Oregon is my recommendation. We spent 3 days at the Oregon coast at Cape Kiwanda in a huge beach house rented by Kiwanda Coastal Properties and then 3 more days in a place called Government Camp at the base of Mt. Hood, where we stayed in a "luxury chalet" at the Collins Lake Resort.

My sister and nephew on the alpine slide

Normally I wouldn't bother with where we stayed, except that I highly recommend both of these places: they're very well taken care of and excellently located for fun family adventures. Our beach house was walking distance from the beach and the tide pools, and the resort is walking distance from a small amusement park and less than 10 minutes to the beautiful Trillium Lake. (And I am not getting paid in any way for saying nice things about these places... just paying it forward, I guess?) They are both also quite affordable for family trips, if you are figuring a per-person lodging cost and you sleep as many as the house/chalet allows.

So, I'm back in the swing of things and I'll even be introducing some more new segments soon. I've given the design here a facelift, too -- I'd love to hear what you think!